The first speaker of Jam Jam Festival 2020 announced!
Sos Sosowski is the legend behind the 0h Game Jam and he will be joining us in June 2020 revealing all the pain and joy of running the shortest game jam in the world for years. Will there be one in 2020? It depends on clocks… Don’t miss this talk, get your tickets to the festival in Eventbrite already now!
We are happy to announce that the 4th international Jam Jam Festival will be held on 13-15 June 2020!
Another FGJ has been completed! Thank you everyone for participated no matter what role!
Every year despite limited time, we are amazed what you jammers can do. This year in Finland we had 32 sites, more than 700 jammers who developed 238 games.
You can find all the games developed in Finland on the Global Game Jam page:
https://globalgamejam.org/2020/games?title=&country=FI
This year, GGJ had over 48,700 jammers attending 934 jam sites across the world in 118 countries, all coming together became the biggest jam ever! Once again GGJ has broken all of last year’s records and become the newly-crowned Biggest Game Jam Ever!
GGJ had 9 new countries take part for the first time ever: Albania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cyprus, Mauritius, Senegal, Sudan and Zimbabwe, adding 213 jammers and 35 new games to the mix. One of GGJ’s biggest aims is to be able to bring new emerging voices and talent into the game making space, and welcome these new site organisers and jammers to our big jam family.
The global theme for GGJ20 was repair and jammers incorporated this theme as a concept in their games in different ways: various states of repair, breaking and repairing buildings and pots, repairing relationships, and plants repairing themselves.
In Finland we were lucky to have amazing national and local sponsors this year as well. We want to extend a big thank you to all sponsors one more time, we could have made #FGJ20 this awesome without them.
#FGJ20 wouldn’t be possible without Futureplay Games as our national GOLD Sponsor for the event! A huge thanks to this inspiring company!
Thank you again everyone who attended or followed the action through our streams and social media, it was crazy but amazing weekend! Follow our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and see you all at the next jam!
#FGJ20 has just started, and it wouldn’t be possible without Futureplay Games as our national GOLD Sponsor for the event! A huge thanks to this inspiring company with no-nonsense approach to the industry!
Follow #FGJ20 LIVE and remember to post your awesome jamming pictures to discord!
Also you can find out more what Futureplay does at http://www.futureplaygames.com/
This year we have 22 sites! More information about each of them you can find at #FGJ20 website www.finnishgamejam.com/2020 or in Eventbrite.
Don’t forget to follow #FGJ20 live on Twitch and Mixer.
Follow our Facebook, Twitter
The main event of the year is getting closer! Finnish Game Jam 2020 (#FGJ20) is arranged from January 31st to February 2nd, 2020 as a part of Global Game Jam.
It is again time to get jamming with the rest of the planet. Global Game Jam 2020 will be held throughout the entire world at the same time. Naturally, Finland will participate, now for the 11th time!
All sites are listed on our official Finnish Game Jam 2020 website.
Hurry up and register in
If your area is missing a site here is your chance to organize one yourself! Site applications can be made through Global Game Jam’s website. Site application is open until January 12th, but we recommend you act fast to be able to prepare for the jam.
IMPORTANT! Registration is open until January 23rd 11:59 PM.
Follow our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more news and latest updates!
On
All of the awarded games have been made in different game jams organized by Finnish Game Jam during the 2019 season.
Home is a place that keeps us warm and safe. But what happens when you end up without a proper home and even your temporary dumpster gets taken away? Life Of John provides a unique and emotional experience while reminding us that helping others when they are at their lowest point might save humanity. Life Of John is a beautiful narrative experience with simple yet interesting gameplay. This immersive game essay created in a one-man team clearly stands out from the Finnish jam games of 2019.
What do you get when you combine hamsters, pears and awesome game technology from the ’80s? A game about pooping hamster with sweet Game Boy tunes. The Poopster is a very wholesome retro package of graphics, gameplay, and music. It was made during Assembly Game Jam 2019, at the best Finnish jamming place to explore commercially obsolete old hardware and to show to the world how the jammers don’t let the platforms of the past to be forgotten in silence.
Who is the dog’s best friend? Human! Rescuing humans from the streets is the job of a truly virtuous dog! Human Rescue a simple jam game with great gameplay and polished cartoony visuals. The attraction of the game lies in its role-reversing core: In Human Rescue you are tasked to adopt humans and use them to adopt even more humans. Who would let humans roam around the streets aimlessly and without guardians anyway?
We know very well that winter in Finland can be tough – especially for the small birds! For our pleasure, the birds that do not migrate stay behind and delight our forests with their tweets, from their homes. Where The Birds Are is a very Finnish, minimalistic and calming piece of game art. In this game, you are tasked to set up birdhouses to trees and solve the puzzle while music grows as you advance and see where the birds are. Calming games are still a rarity and such pieces definitely stand out from the jam crowds!
Finnish appreciate games, coffee, technology, and sustainability – so why not games about barista robots with organic beans! In Mochabot Organic players receive the orders and brew the coffee with the help of a cute, relentless barista bot. This jam game is served with a minimalistic color palette and a great art style in a package of multiple minigames that soothe your caffeine-induced brains.
Winter is here… and we all need to keep warm, bunnies too. Furthermore, what would be a better winter hobby than sleeping by the warmth of a fireplace? Sleeping Bunny takes the player on a wintery journey to save a bunny from cold and sleep deprivation. This jam game offers consistent and stylized art with simple and elegant gameplay – a jam game at its best! Simple yet surprisingly challenging gameplay of Sleeping Bunny lets the player unravel the goal on their own and minimalistic, as well as atmospheric audio space, supports the immersive narrative of the game. Playing a piece like this puts smiles on our faces and goodnight dreams in our heads.
What would game jams be without music? And even more importantly, what would music be without jamming together? Julius Jämsen brought the jam-lovers together with a power of musical jamming at Jam Jam 2019. If there has ever been a sleazy song about game jamming, we are confident that it cannot beat the ooze of love that this international and multilingual eight-minute song has to offer. A true
Game jams use technologies from present and past, but how about the future? We have been told that the future is quantum and quantum is playable! Goes without saying that anything that we can use for play, we jammers, love! In February 2019, IBM provided the first-ever live access to and developer support for the quantum computers at the Quantum Wheel game jam. We were humbled by such privilege and now very eager to see what the quantum future will bring for us jammers. We believe that combining the power of future technologies and bravery of the jammers can take us far and let us have fun while doing it!
Finnish Game Jam organization would be nothing without the community. Every year and every jam is a joint effort of organizers, participants,
Another FGJ great event is over. We want to thank all the winners and all the event participants. It would not happen without you! Thank you!
Dear jammers and all jam-minded people! We are glad to invite you all to the Finnish Game Jam Awards 2019!
A good amount of jams have happened this season, and we’re happy that all of you jammers and volunteers, both old and new, made these events possible. Together we want to celebrate the spirit of jamming community and creativity that has no limits!
When: 13th of December, 18:00-23:00.
Where: Arcade5, Lapinlahdenkatu 16, Helsinki
Why: Because we can!
Some programme highlights include red carpet, good music, official award ceremony, fancy photoshoots and fantastic people.
Join the event by purchasing the ticket through Eventbrite link.
You can find the Facebook event here.
See you all there!
Quantum Wheel, a game jam about quantum technology, was held in the heart of frozen Helsinki in February 15-17. The event was first of its kind, bringing independent game developers and physicists under one roof to innovate a union of games and quantum computing.
Finnish Game Jam is no stranger to quantum theory, having organized already four Quantum Game Jams in the past. Physicists have been invited to jam since the very first event, and for a couple of years jammers have had access to Quantum Black Box, a tool developed at the University of Turku. Quantum Wheel was the first event organized in collaboration with IBM as well as the first event to provide jammers with the IBM quantum computer Q Experience.
During the weekend Allas Sea Pool was inhabited by over 50 participants who made 10 games, all utilising quantum technologies in one way or another. The theme for the jam was “noise in the wheel”. The theme was inspired by the eponymous SkyWheel, where teams spent some time jamming above the city.
One team took a step further, bringing quantum computing into physical world. They designed a card game that teaches players how to program on a quantum computer, and an actual quantum computer will also decide who wins the game.
Quantum Wheel garnered international interest as well, and Wired UK wrote an article featuring the event. You can read it here: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/quantum-game-jam-finland-helsinki
Make sure to try the games, all of them are available at Itch.io: https://itch.io/jam/quantum-wheel
Here you can read more about IBM’s Q Experience:
https://www.research.ibm.com/ibm-q/
Thank you for everyone for an amazing and unique event!
We are proud to have a new exciting jam in February 2019!
Quantum Wheel is a three day game jam at the heart of Helsinki aimed at creating games based on Quantum Physics, both for education and research.
The event continues the Quantum Game Jam series, and it is a collaboration with quantum physicists from the University of Turku, Aalto University and from IBM Zurich, who will participate in the jam. The list of participants includes also many experienced game developers and jammers from Finland and around the globe.
In this jam, the participants create games that utilize Quantum Black Box (tool developed at the University of Turku) and/or IBM quantum computer Q Experience. Otherwise the teams are free to choose their games’ directions and technologies used.
The jam will have around 50 participants and will be located at the cozy Sea Allas Pool in the center of Helsinki. Additional inspiration for the jam will be extracted from riding the SkyWheel Helsinki!
The website is open, go see it here: http://www.quantumgamejam.com/quantumwheel/
Quantum Wheel
15-17 February 2019
Allas Sea Pool / SkyWheel Helsinki
Katajanokanlaituri 2
00160 Helsinki
Finland
Allas Sea Pool is a gardenlike oasis in the heart of Helsinki with a large pool area and magnificent saunas. In addition to swimming, bathing in the saunas and good food, Allas Sea Pool offers many options for wellness. Spending a perfect day at Allas means relaxing, lingering, enjoying with all senses, both the body and the mind – in the middle of Helsinki, next to the Market square, every day of the year.
Website: https://www.allasseapool.fi/en/
SkyWheel Helsinki is an Observation Wheel is situated in Katajanokka, one of the most beautiful locations in Helsinki, right next to the market square. From 40 meters high you may see over the city, sea and surrounding islands.
Website: http://www.skywheel.fi/en/